One of the things that I really like about the 13th-early 14th century are the many varied ways to wear you hair - and headwear. Contrary to popular ideas hair was not always totally cover4d, not even on married women. I've written some about it on the page about my 13th century outfit with a Barbie pink gardecorps, but I thought that it would be nice with a blog post which focuses on this and show some more period examples. Unmarried women I'll start with (presumably) unmarried women, who are often seen with their hair hanging or, much more rarely, braided. Braid with gold ribbons and a circlet from the end of the 13th century, ow maybe her hair is just wrapped in ribbons and not braided. In any case it's not hanging loosely. Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire U 964 - Biblia Porta fol. 178r On of the young women ion this awesome French 13th century image of the Devil tempting both sexes to have fun same-sex sexuality, also has a single braid or possibly unbraided hair wrapped in ribbons. Wavy/slightly curly hair was popular. Here with a circlet. ca 1300. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Here we see mother and daugher, showing the difference between a married woman with her chin strap and fillet and the daughter with a circlet in gold, tied with red ribbons. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Loose hair and circlets in France c 1250. The Maciejowski Bible It is of course hard to be sure about the marital status of all these women, but this woman wearing a hairnet is also probably unmarried, like her friends, since she's wearing only a circlet with her hairnet. It appears that the white wavy fillet and chin strap was a thing for married women. And don't be fooled by all the women with white fillets and/or veils being courted by knights - adoring a married woman was a thing in Courtly Culture. (A book tip: Courtly Culture by Joachim Bumke, a German historian. It is really,really good.) This image show the death of Nabal and what I presume is his wife and daughter, indicating that the white cap today mostly referred to as the St. Birgitta cap, was worn also by unmarried women. You also see that already in France c. 1250 married women wore a chin strap and fillet with loose hair under it. But, really, "everyone" already knows that unmarried women wore their hair uncovered in the Middle ages. The most interesting thing may be the image of the woman at the top with her hair braided in one single braid. This is not a style that we generally associate with the 13th and early 14th century, and one that I will get back to now that I turn to the married women. Married women I promised myself that this post wouldn't be about veils, so I will try to refrain from showing images just because I like the veils, filelts or chin straps. there has to be some hair too. We have already seen that a white fillet, often with a wavy or decorated edge (I write more about that here) was worn by many women together with either a chin band/barbette, or maybe a Birgitta cap under it; the image above could for instance show a cap insted of a strip of linen. On the other hand there are written sources telling about long strips of linen, called gebende, wound many times around the head (Bumke 2000 p 152) and the image may well show this instead. This is a lovely detail shot of Markgrafin Uta from the Naumburg cathedral, showing her wide gebende decorated with gold, but also some of her wavy hair at the temples. Photo from Wikimedia commons A much less well-known figure from the same cathedral is countess Gerburg von Brehna. She's not as pretty, but she has a braid! So, like Uta she has a crown with a pill box cap, a gebende wrapped around her head, and wavy hair showing at the temples, but, since we can see her from the side we also see that she has a single braid hainging down her back. Furthermore, if you look at my favourite of the Naumberg ladies: the happily smiling Reglindis you see that she also probably has a hanging braid. Image from wikimedia commons Oh, what I would give for a side view of Uta's head :) Narrower chinstraps were worn with a fillet and hanging hair as you have seen in the example of the motehr and daughter from the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift above. The Weingartner Liederhandschrift, which is contemporary to it, but much less fancy seem to favour a slightly...sloppy approach to the white linen fillet. Image from wikimedia commons You also find many examples of hanging hair under a veil in the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift. With veil and a circlet on top of it. And another one: And one with a pink veil draped over what appears to be a gold coloured band of some kind. No chinstraps as you can see on these images, but veils indicating married status anyway. Hair nets came in many colours, and were frequently worn with chinstrap and white fillet. Two examples from the Murthly Hours, a French mansucript fro the 1280s, show a green and a blue net respectively. And we also see that while prossibly shaped it is defintiely not a cap the woman with the green hairnet is wearing, which makes it less likely that it's a cap in the image of Nabal's death from the Maciejowski bible, since it looks just the same, except that we can't see the top of her head. Detail from fol 6 recto This is a gorgeous manuscript, which can be seen in its entirety at the web site of the national Library of Scotland. Lots of inspiration for illumination there. Another be-netted, fillet wearing...snake. From MS K26 at St.John's College, Cambridge. And a Norwegian early 14th century example, showing decorated hairnet, chin strap and fillet. So, hairnets are definitely an option, for married as well as for unmarried women - there are also quite a few of them preserved. This one is from the church of St. Truiden in Belgium, dated to the 13th century (link to museum site): And the same goes for this one, from the cathedral of St. Paul (link to museum site). As you see, they are first knotted and then embroidered. I'm ending this post with an image from the Rheims Missal 1285-1297, showing maybe a "Birgitta cap" with a fillet with wavy or dagged edge and a gebende. And wavy hair at the temples.

I'm full of plans for a new gown, based on a series of illuminations in the Taymouth Hours, a manuscript from early 14th century England. The illuminations that caught my eye feature a series of noblewomen hunting with everything from dogs to nets to bows to hawks. In the main manuscript, these illuminations start around page 68. In these four close ups, you can see the gist of the style. There's a long, tight sleeved gown, with a shorter, split sided, tippeted (if it's not a word, it should be) overdress. Several of the ladies have fur lining in the overgown, and several wear veils. One has a hood folded and set aside on a hawk's perch. The expression on the rabbit's face in that last one cracks me up every time... Planning for this gown is underway - I've got some lovely linen in a gorgeous mid blue, and a fantastic brick red, though I'm still deciding between a blue over red color scheme, or red over blue. The current tangle is figuring out construction and fit of both dresses. The overdress seems fairly loose and flowing all over, but it looks to me like the bodice of the undergown would be fairly close fitting, with very tight fitting sleeves. Blocking out a general pattern is next, and then the fun of a more exact draft. My goal is to have this dress completed by Crown List in May, which is incredibly ambitious between my field work for my degree, and wedding planning (June 18th can't get here soon enough!). We'll see how much I can get done, though!

Since I have been making clothing from this period for over fifteen years now I have of course learnt a lot, discarded some ideas and tried new ones regarding the fillets, coffee filter hats or whatever you want to call them. So I thought that I should share three different fillets that I have made, and the inspiration for them. More generally I have written about headwear options for women in this period in this, rather image-heavy post. It is important to note that these are in period texts considered as part of the veils, chin band etc, what in German would have been called gebende, a word related to ribbon, at this period, and one that I like a lot, because it includes all parts of the (mostly) linen headwear. They were therefore also of the same material and colour as the veil, chin band or wimple etc. In fact, it is clear to see from 13th centry images that they originally were a strip of linen would around the head. These two are from a French manuscript from the 1220s - and you can even see the pin holding it together. This lady, from the Worcester cathedral, from the 1240s, has a pleated band wound around her head as a crown, but we can see where it overlaps. This 13th century lady from Dryburg Abbey appears ot have wound her pleated strip twice around her head. I haven't worn this variant yet, but since I have five metres of hemmed linen strip to wind around my head this is probably just a matter of time. And of boiling starch. Later one they appear to have become a separate piece, worn over the chin strap and sometimes also over a coif, but always under the veil, if worn with a veil (see the post linked above). A lot of these were plain, and I have one of those too, bust since it's only a piece of linen, cut at an angle at the edges, folded over, sewn together and starched slightly I didn't bother to take a photo of it. Plain fillets, from Reims cathedral, 13th century, and the Holkham Bible 1325-1330. But, there are also more decorated ones, in one way or the other, and that's what I am going to show you three examples of. 1. This is a fillet with a "wavy" edge. These are rather common in art, but whether the many examples of fillets with this kind of edge is the artists' way of showing pleating or actually shows a wavy upper edge is under debate. I however think that it is unlikely that so many artists, who have no problems showing pleats on for example sleeveheads on gardecorps should be unable to draw them on women's headwear. I think that there were several different ways to decorate a fillet, pleated, with a wavy or scalloped edge, edged with a braid etc. This fillet is based on St. Anna on this early 14th century altar frontal from Odda in Norway, seen below. Both her fillet and and her "chin strap" has rows of decorations which I have interpreted as braid, but could also be embroidery for instance. Another example showing a fillet with an edge of something thicker, maybe a braid, or a rolled piece of fabric is this s seal from c. 1300 (picture showing the imprint) My fillet has a silk cord sewn to it, but a more period solution would be a hand made braid or cord. The fillet is made from linen in a diamond twill, to add some interest to the simple white colour, and it is stiffened with heavy fusible interfacing. This was my first fillet, and today I would have either chosen vellum, which I'm told was used to stiffen some 13th century Spanish hats, or starch. To make the top wider than the bottom the pieces are cut at an angle where they are sewn together. A few more wavy fillets with some kind of edge decoration at the top: Roman del la Poire, 13th century And the ever popular Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift. 2. This fillet instead has a scalloped edge. There are quite a few images of these too. My first inspiration, the violent woman in blue in the Trinity Apocalypse. This one, from teh Maciejowski Bible also appears scalloped. But it is also slightly shaped, since the edges stand out. To achive this there is a wire sewn along all the scallops bty hand, before, again by hand, sewing the outer and inner layers together. Here you see that the strip is angled at the back. 3. Finally we have a pleated fillet, which is new, I made it this autumn. This is not my first try at a pleated fillet, but the less said about that other one, the better. I sewed wire to the edge of many metres of linen and knife pleated the whole thing. It was not a success. This one is also made from a long strip of linen, but instead of knife pleating it all I sewed tucks on the strip, levaing the top 1,5- 2 cm. After hemming it all of course. To give it some stability I sewed a strip of linen to the bottom edge. I contemplated sewign teh pleats to teh top edge of this strip too, but as you can see on the photo of me above, it keeps its shape pretty well anyway, with the help of spray starch. This, absolutely fabulous photo of Countess Margareta von Brabant, married to count Gerald von Gerle, taken by the German re-enactment group Amicorum Gratia shows a pleated fillet from above, and you see that it is double, though the inner layer also appears to be pleated. This may be next on my list. Again, this my be a strip of linen wound twice around the head. I'm not sure about this cosntruction with the tucks, but it does give a good Maciejowski bible look. This Italian manuscript from 1241 shows either a pleated, or a scalloped fillet which has decoration in yellow on it. I'm guessing pleating. This german one appears to have pleats both at the top and the bottom, and not much of an angle. My guess is that this is still a strip of linen just wound around the head. This one, from, the Rutland Psalter (ca 1260) is probably pleated in some way, but much less so than the one I have made. Anyway, there are a million medieval images showing this type of headwear, and showing these was not the point of this post, but to show different variants that I have made. And, hopefully, point out that these are three interpretations, and that there are many more to make. And therefore I end here.

One of the things that I really like about the 13th-early 14th century are the many varied ways to wear you hair - and headwear. Contrary to popular ideas hair was not always totally cover4d, not even on married women. I've written some about it on the page about my 13th century outfit with a Barbie pink gardecorps, but I thought that it would be nice with a blog post which focuses on this and show some more period examples. Unmarried women I'll start with (presumably) unmarried women, who are often seen with their hair hanging or, much more rarely, braided. Braid with gold ribbons and a circlet from the end of the 13th century, ow maybe her hair is just wrapped in ribbons and not braided. In any case it's not hanging loosely. Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire U 964 - Biblia Porta fol. 178r On of the young women ion this awesome French 13th century image of the Devil tempting both sexes to have fun same-sex sexuality, also has a single braid or possibly unbraided hair wrapped in ribbons. Wavy/slightly curly hair was popular. Here with a circlet. ca 1300. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Here we see mother and daugher, showing the difference between a married woman with her chin strap and fillet and the daughter with a circlet in gold, tied with red ribbons. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Loose hair and circlets in France c 1250. The Maciejowski Bible It is of course hard to be sure about the marital status of all these women, but this woman wearing a hairnet is also probably unmarried, like her friends, since she's wearing only a circlet with her hairnet. It appears that the white wavy fillet and chin strap was a thing for married women. And don't be fooled by all the women with white fillets and/or veils being courted by knights - adoring a married woman was a thing in Courtly Culture. (A book tip: Courtly Culture by Joachim Bumke, a German historian. It is really,really good.) This image show the death of Nabal and what I presume is his wife and daughter, indicating that the white cap today mostly referred to as the St. Birgitta cap, was worn also by unmarried women. You also see that already in France c. 1250 married women wore a chin strap and fillet with loose hair under it. But, really, "everyone" already knows that unmarried women wore their hair uncovered in the Middle ages. The most interesting thing may be the image of the woman at the top with her hair braided in one single braid. This is not a style that we generally associate with the 13th and early 14th century, and one that I will get back to now that I turn to the married women. Married women I promised myself that this post wouldn't be about veils, so I will try to refrain from showing images just because I like the veils, filelts or chin straps. there has to be some hair too. We have already seen that a white fillet, often with a wavy or decorated edge (I write more about that here) was worn by many women together with either a chin band/barbette, or maybe a Birgitta cap under it; the image above could for instance show a cap insted of a strip of linen. On the other hand there are written sources telling about long strips of linen, called gebende, wound many times around the head (Bumke 2000 p 152) and the image may well show this instead. This is a lovely detail shot of Markgrafin Uta from the Naumburg cathedral, showing her wide gebende decorated with gold, but also some of her wavy hair at the temples. Photo from Wikimedia commons A much less well-known figure from the same cathedral is countess Gerburg von Brehna. She's not as pretty, but she has a braid! So, like Uta she has a crown with a pill box cap, a gebende wrapped around her head, and wavy hair showing at the temples, but, since we can see her from the side we also see that she has a single braid hainging down her back. Furthermore, if you look at my favourite of the Naumberg ladies: the happily smiling Reglindis you see that she also probably has a hanging braid. Image from wikimedia commons Oh, what I would give for a side view of Uta's head :) Narrower chinstraps were worn with a fillet and hanging hair as you have seen in the example of the motehr and daughter from the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift above. The Weingartner Liederhandschrift, which is contemporary to it, but much less fancy seem to favour a slightly...sloppy approach to the white linen fillet. Image from wikimedia commons You also find many examples of hanging hair under a veil in the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift. With veil and a circlet on top of it. And another one: And one with a pink veil draped over what appears to be a gold coloured band of some kind. No chinstraps as you can see on these images, but veils indicating married status anyway. Hair nets came in many colours, and were frequently worn with chinstrap and white fillet. Two examples from the Murthly Hours, a French mansucript fro the 1280s, show a green and a blue net respectively. And we also see that while prossibly shaped it is defintiely not a cap the woman with the green hairnet is wearing, which makes it less likely that it's a cap in the image of Nabal's death from the Maciejowski bible, since it looks just the same, except that we can't see the top of her head. Detail from fol 6 recto This is a gorgeous manuscript, which can be seen in its entirety at the web site of the national Library of Scotland. Lots of inspiration for illumination there. Another be-netted, fillet wearing...snake. From MS K26 at St.John's College, Cambridge. And a Norwegian early 14th century example, showing decorated hairnet, chin strap and fillet. So, hairnets are definitely an option, for married as well as for unmarried women - there are also quite a few of them preserved. This one is from the church of St. Truiden in Belgium, dated to the 13th century (link to museum site): And the same goes for this one, from the cathedral of St. Paul (link to museum site). As you see, they are first knotted and then embroidered. I'm ending this post with an image from the Rheims Missal 1285-1297, showing maybe a "Birgitta cap" with a fillet with wavy or dagged edge and a gebende. And wavy hair at the temples.

An unknown lantern from Järvsö in Hälsingland, Sweden. In the Hälsinglandsmuseum collection there is a lantern in metal, HM5109. This lantern appeared in a search at DigtialtMuseum site, when …

Yesterday, I snarked on the costumes on romance covers. I have no idea if the clothing described in those books is accurate (it’s quite possible that it is; its my understanding that authors …

For many years I have been fond of pattenred or coloured veils - fro insance I'm wearing a striped veil on this photo of me in my pink cotte, and that is one of my favourite veils. While coloured veils are well documented for the periods before 1200 ( I wear coloured veils with all my 12th century gowns) they are not unusual in the High Middle Ages either, though they tend to be more white with a pattern, or in lighter colours, such as yellow. Literary sources from Germany complain that women were wearing saffron coloured veils in the 13th century, something that was both luxurious, given the price of saffron, and vain. Decorated veils tended to arise the ire of men of the church, who claimed that it was given as a sign of humility and modesty, and a sign of Eve's guilt in the fall of man (don't ask me how they came to that conclusion) and that it was an offence to the christian god to make them into an item of vanity and seduction. Well, I'm all for vanity and seduction, though I'm not sure that it works, so I have decided that in my renewed 13th-early 14th ceetury wardrobe I am going to wear even more decorated veils. So, here are some images from the period. Coloured This one is from 1214-1220, much like the 12th century veils. I love pink. Society of Antiquaries, Ms59, fol 35 v Emma wearing a red veil in the Vita of Edward the Confessor, from c 1260 University of Cambridge Digital Library Darker colours seems to be more popular in Spain. This one is lined with a contrasting colour as you can see. 13th century scupture from Navarre, again at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Another Spanish statue Santa Maria de Vitoria, from Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain Edged French c.1275-1300, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Same time. Also the Metroplitan Museum of Art Striped, or otherwise overall patterned How much do I love these veils by Meister Heinrich von Konstanz, ca 1300? Too much for words, Again, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Manuscript c 1325-30, from Bibliothèque Nationale deFrance Santa Maria de Montserrat, statue from Montserrat Abbey in Barcelona, Wikimedia Commons. A detail photo can be found here. Lined c. 1270-1280 St. John's College, Oxford MS K26

This gown is based on this illumination from Andalius de Nigro Januensis' Tractatus de sphaera, made in 1325-1330. Ever since I saw it first I wanted to make a mi-parti gown out of matching brocades. The manuscript is made in Southern Italy, possibly Naples, and is a treatise on astronomy. It is now in the Bibliothèque National de France, link to the manuscript here. It took quite a while to find matching brocades in white and blue, but finally I managed to find it from puresilks.us. The fabric is a silk mix brocade in dark blue and white, the photo below is too light, teh blue is really dark. The gown is fully lined in the thin silk below, shot in yellow and red. As you see the pattern is the same in both fabrics. Inexplicably the direction of the fabric was different in the white and the blue, so I hade to piece the blue fabric to make it long enough. And obviously I didn't make it long enough anyway, so I hade to add strips of plain silk at the bottom of my gown. I made a matching tunic for Sir Måns, but I don't have any photos of that currently. Except of the buttons in his sleeves ;)

Plague, infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas. Plague has caused some of the most-devastating epidemics in history. It was the disease behind the Black Death of the 14th century, when as much as one-third of Europe’s population died.

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 3525, f.84v. Watriquet de Couvin, Dits. 14th century

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Vita Quotidiana Do you ever wonder how a person lived in the middle ages? This site is dedicated to revealing tidbits of life in the period of time we label the Middle Ages (1100-1450) and Renaissa…

Bag, Mosul, northern Iraq, 1300-1330. Brass, inlaid with gold and silver. Height: 15.2 cm; width: 22 cm; depth: 13.5 cm © The Courtauld Gallery, London This exhibition explores one of the most rare and beautiful objects in the collection of The Courtauld...

It's amazing how many mistakes we dog owners (and pet owners in general) make without even being aware we are making them. This article lists twenty-one.

Like most things clothing-related in this period, the sumptuous overgown we call the houppelande, has a layered evolution that has to be understood through both time and class

Here you see two examples of gowns made from a thin wool fabric that I have printed. The cut of my gown is based on the early 13th century gown worn by St. Elisabeth of Thuringia, while I used a composition of the 13th parti-coloured Söderköping tunic and a variation of a sleeve from 14th century Herjolfsnes for my husband’s gown. His gown is slit in the front and back, something you often see in period art and which it is possible that the Söderköping tunic also was. The fabrics used are a thin white wool tabby and a red wool twill. The buttons on my gown are made from wool flannel, while Budde’s tunics has brass buttons. Fabric printing in Medieval Europe - Sources Unfortunately, there are no medieval printed instructions on how to print fabric before the late 14th century or the 15th century. Cennino Cennini's Il libro dell'Arte. from ca 1400 mentions printing on silk and linen and also mentions that printed linen is good to use for children’s clothing – presumably because it’s cheaper than the woven versions. I have myself only studied Cennini in English and Swedish translations and the differences between them makes me slightly wary about translations of source texts (well, I already was). There are contradictions between them. However, the English translation is based on the Italian original while the Swedish is based on a French translation, so I choose to rely on the English translation when they differ. There is also a 15th century German treatise on fabric printing (among other things) which belong to the St. Catherine convent in Nürnberg. The manuscript specifically mentions that printed fabric could be used for liturgical clothing (which is natural given the context) It has been published an analysed by Robert Forrer in Die Kunst des Zeugdrucks vom Mittelalter bis zur Empirezeit, in 1898. It can be downloaded from here. A Swedish manuscript, written by the Bridgetine monk, priest and scientist Peder Månsson (Swedish link only) in the 15th century also had a section dedicated to textile printing. Unfortunately, only the part about making flocked wall hangings/paper has been preserved. It differs from Cennini, but the inspiration is probably drawn from Italy, where he travelled. Patterns and colours The Swedish scholar Ingegerd Henschen shows that there was a strong connection between patterns on woven fabric and on prints. Sometimes the patterns are so alike that a specific pattern can be identified as taken from or being based on the same source as a woven fabric, in other cases strong similarities are found, though the print often is simplified. Most of the preserved medieval prints are either printed with black or with gold or silver. Other colours used, and mentioned in Cennini, are red, green and yellow. The anonymous German writer describes how to print using silver, gold, wool shearings (to create a velvet like appearance) and paint. The colours mentioned are red, black, green, blue and white. According to Henschen many fabric prints before the 15th century were made with dark colours on a dyed background, red, blue or green. White could presumably also be used on dyed fabric, but it appears that he most common was a darker print on coloured fabric. Light backgrounds, mostly undyed, became more common in the 15th century. This photo shows a 15th century printed textile used as lining in a Swedish chasuble. As you see it has pritns in both black and white on an unbleached linen fabric. Copyright by Statens Historiska Museum, Jan-Eve Olsson. Follow this link for some more amazing photos of the printed fabric. What did they print on? The most common material for textile printing in Europe was linen. There are late medieval examples on cotton or linen/cotton mixes. Since the latter were produced in large amount in Italy from the 13th century and in Southern Germany from the 14th century, this is not surprising. Especially since cotton fabrics mostly were directed at the cheaper end of the market. Most of this fabric was either bleached or dyed in one colour. When patterned cotton fabric made in Europe was usually in the form of woven patterns. Silk was also used for printing. It is mentioned in Cennini and there many preserved examples from medieval Europe. The German manuscript mentions printing on linen, velvet and also on wool. My printed fabric This is where we, to paraphrase Dumbledore, enter the realm of guesswork. Or speculation, or creativity. Mostly the latter I think. While both the German writer and Cennini mention printing on wool they are later than the period I am portraying. In Cennini, wool printing is mentioned mainly for tourneys and spectacles and the fabric is described as fulled, which means my wool is way too thin, and not fulled. The German writer makes no such distinction, but writes about wool which has lost colour and mine never had any to begin with :) The stamp that I used is not based on a period example, but is a ready-made stamp that I found at a hobby store. The pattern Is reasonably medieval, or doesn’t look too off at least. The overall design of the fabric with the squares placed evenly was inspired by several manuscript showing what is most likely woven fabric. Such as this one, showing Cain killing Abel, while both are wearing very stylish tunics: MS K26 at St.John's College, Cambridge I chose red on white, as in Cains tunic, both because red was a colour used in period printing of fabric, and I had white woool, but I also think that red on white looks so lovely on these late 13th-early 14th century sculptures from the the Freiburger Münster: Photo by Uli Frömming The paint that I used is a standard commercial fabric paint, the kind you set with a hot iron on the back of the fabric. To space the pattern evenly (or at least reasonably so) I cut a square piece of cardboard which I used as guidance for where to place the stamp. It was boring, so it was very good to have my neighbour and friend Anna's company. It was, by the way, even more boring to set each motif with the iron. I cut out all the piece before setting them so that I could avoid setting something that I wouldn't use. And to break the task down to more manageable pieces. --------------- When I started this project I made a blog post about textile printing where you can see some more examples. It's here. Literature Forrer, Robert, Die Kunst des Zeugdrucks vom Mittelalter bis zur Empirezeit: nach Urkunden und Originaldrucken, Schlesier und Schweikhardt, Strassburg i.Els, 1898 Henschen Ingvar, Ingegerd, Tygtryck i Sverige. 1, Före 1700, Almqvist & Wiksell, Diss. Uppsala : Univ.,Uppsala, 1942 Mazzaoui, Maureen Fennell, The Italian cotton industry in the later Middle Ages, 1100-1600, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1981

One of the things that I really like about the 13th-early 14th century are the many varied ways to wear you hair - and headwear. Contrary to popular ideas hair was not always totally cover4d, not even on married women. I've written some about it on the page about my 13th century outfit with a Barbie pink gardecorps, but I thought that it would be nice with a blog post which focuses on this and show some more period examples. Unmarried women I'll start with (presumably) unmarried women, who are often seen with their hair hanging or, much more rarely, braided. Braid with gold ribbons and a circlet from the end of the 13th century, ow maybe her hair is just wrapped in ribbons and not braided. In any case it's not hanging loosely. Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire U 964 - Biblia Porta fol. 178r On of the young women ion this awesome French 13th century image of the Devil tempting both sexes to have fun same-sex sexuality, also has a single braid or possibly unbraided hair wrapped in ribbons. Wavy/slightly curly hair was popular. Here with a circlet. ca 1300. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Here we see mother and daugher, showing the difference between a married woman with her chin strap and fillet and the daughter with a circlet in gold, tied with red ribbons. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Loose hair and circlets in France c 1250. The Maciejowski Bible It is of course hard to be sure about the marital status of all these women, but this woman wearing a hairnet is also probably unmarried, like her friends, since she's wearing only a circlet with her hairnet. It appears that the white wavy fillet and chin strap was a thing for married women. And don't be fooled by all the women with white fillets and/or veils being courted by knights - adoring a married woman was a thing in Courtly Culture. (A book tip: Courtly Culture by Joachim Bumke, a German historian. It is really,really good.) This image show the death of Nabal and what I presume is his wife and daughter, indicating that the white cap today mostly referred to as the St. Birgitta cap, was worn also by unmarried women. You also see that already in France c. 1250 married women wore a chin strap and fillet with loose hair under it. But, really, "everyone" already knows that unmarried women wore their hair uncovered in the Middle ages. The most interesting thing may be the image of the woman at the top with her hair braided in one single braid. This is not a style that we generally associate with the 13th and early 14th century, and one that I will get back to now that I turn to the married women. Married women I promised myself that this post wouldn't be about veils, so I will try to refrain from showing images just because I like the veils, filelts or chin straps. there has to be some hair too. We have already seen that a white fillet, often with a wavy or decorated edge (I write more about that here) was worn by many women together with either a chin band/barbette, or maybe a Birgitta cap under it; the image above could for instance show a cap insted of a strip of linen. On the other hand there are written sources telling about long strips of linen, called gebende, wound many times around the head (Bumke 2000 p 152) and the image may well show this instead. This is a lovely detail shot of Markgrafin Uta from the Naumburg cathedral, showing her wide gebende decorated with gold, but also some of her wavy hair at the temples. Photo from Wikimedia commons A much less well-known figure from the same cathedral is countess Gerburg von Brehna. She's not as pretty, but she has a braid! So, like Uta she has a crown with a pill box cap, a gebende wrapped around her head, and wavy hair showing at the temples, but, since we can see her from the side we also see that she has a single braid hainging down her back. Furthermore, if you look at my favourite of the Naumberg ladies: the happily smiling Reglindis you see that she also probably has a hanging braid. Image from wikimedia commons Oh, what I would give for a side view of Uta's head :) Narrower chinstraps were worn with a fillet and hanging hair as you have seen in the example of the motehr and daughter from the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift above. The Weingartner Liederhandschrift, which is contemporary to it, but much less fancy seem to favour a slightly...sloppy approach to the white linen fillet. Image from wikimedia commons You also find many examples of hanging hair under a veil in the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift. With veil and a circlet on top of it. And another one: And one with a pink veil draped over what appears to be a gold coloured band of some kind. No chinstraps as you can see on these images, but veils indicating married status anyway. Hair nets came in many colours, and were frequently worn with chinstrap and white fillet. Two examples from the Murthly Hours, a French mansucript fro the 1280s, show a green and a blue net respectively. And we also see that while prossibly shaped it is defintiely not a cap the woman with the green hairnet is wearing, which makes it less likely that it's a cap in the image of Nabal's death from the Maciejowski bible, since it looks just the same, except that we can't see the top of her head. Detail from fol 6 recto This is a gorgeous manuscript, which can be seen in its entirety at the web site of the national Library of Scotland. Lots of inspiration for illumination there. Another be-netted, fillet wearing...snake. From MS K26 at St.John's College, Cambridge. And a Norwegian early 14th century example, showing decorated hairnet, chin strap and fillet. So, hairnets are definitely an option, for married as well as for unmarried women - there are also quite a few of them preserved. This one is from the church of St. Truiden in Belgium, dated to the 13th century (link to museum site): And the same goes for this one, from the cathedral of St. Paul (link to museum site). As you see, they are first knotted and then embroidered. I'm ending this post with an image from the Rheims Missal 1285-1297, showing maybe a "Birgitta cap" with a fillet with wavy or dagged edge and a gebende. And wavy hair at the temples.

One of the things that I really like about the 13th-early 14th century are the many varied ways to wear you hair - and headwear. Contrary to popular ideas hair was not always totally cover4d, not even on married women. I've written some about it on the page about my 13th century outfit with a Barbie pink gardecorps, but I thought that it would be nice with a blog post which focuses on this and show some more period examples. Unmarried women I'll start with (presumably) unmarried women, who are often seen with their hair hanging or, much more rarely, braided. Braid with gold ribbons and a circlet from the end of the 13th century, ow maybe her hair is just wrapped in ribbons and not braided. In any case it's not hanging loosely. Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire U 964 - Biblia Porta fol. 178r On of the young women ion this awesome French 13th century image of the Devil tempting both sexes to have fun same-sex sexuality, also has a single braid or possibly unbraided hair wrapped in ribbons. Wavy/slightly curly hair was popular. Here with a circlet. ca 1300. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Here we see mother and daugher, showing the difference between a married woman with her chin strap and fillet and the daughter with a circlet in gold, tied with red ribbons. Codex Manesse/Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift Loose hair and circlets in France c 1250. The Maciejowski Bible It is of course hard to be sure about the marital status of all these women, but this woman wearing a hairnet is also probably unmarried, like her friends, since she's wearing only a circlet with her hairnet. It appears that the white wavy fillet and chin strap was a thing for married women. And don't be fooled by all the women with white fillets and/or veils being courted by knights - adoring a married woman was a thing in Courtly Culture. (A book tip: Courtly Culture by Joachim Bumke, a German historian. It is really,really good.) This image show the death of Nabal and what I presume is his wife and daughter, indicating that the white cap today mostly referred to as the St. Birgitta cap, was worn also by unmarried women. You also see that already in France c. 1250 married women wore a chin strap and fillet with loose hair under it. But, really, "everyone" already knows that unmarried women wore their hair uncovered in the Middle ages. The most interesting thing may be the image of the woman at the top with her hair braided in one single braid. This is not a style that we generally associate with the 13th and early 14th century, and one that I will get back to now that I turn to the married women. Married women I promised myself that this post wouldn't be about veils, so I will try to refrain from showing images just because I like the veils, filelts or chin straps. there has to be some hair too. We have already seen that a white fillet, often with a wavy or decorated edge (I write more about that here) was worn by many women together with either a chin band/barbette, or maybe a Birgitta cap under it; the image above could for instance show a cap insted of a strip of linen. On the other hand there are written sources telling about long strips of linen, called gebende, wound many times around the head (Bumke 2000 p 152) and the image may well show this instead. This is a lovely detail shot of Markgrafin Uta from the Naumburg cathedral, showing her wide gebende decorated with gold, but also some of her wavy hair at the temples. Photo from Wikimedia commons A much less well-known figure from the same cathedral is countess Gerburg von Brehna. She's not as pretty, but she has a braid! So, like Uta she has a crown with a pill box cap, a gebende wrapped around her head, and wavy hair showing at the temples, but, since we can see her from the side we also see that she has a single braid hainging down her back. Furthermore, if you look at my favourite of the Naumberg ladies: the happily smiling Reglindis you see that she also probably has a hanging braid. Image from wikimedia commons Oh, what I would give for a side view of Uta's head :) Narrower chinstraps were worn with a fillet and hanging hair as you have seen in the example of the motehr and daughter from the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift above. The Weingartner Liederhandschrift, which is contemporary to it, but much less fancy seem to favour a slightly...sloppy approach to the white linen fillet. Image from wikimedia commons You also find many examples of hanging hair under a veil in the Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift. With veil and a circlet on top of it. And another one: And one with a pink veil draped over what appears to be a gold coloured band of some kind. No chinstraps as you can see on these images, but veils indicating married status anyway. Hair nets came in many colours, and were frequently worn with chinstrap and white fillet. Two examples from the Murthly Hours, a French mansucript fro the 1280s, show a green and a blue net respectively. And we also see that while prossibly shaped it is defintiely not a cap the woman with the green hairnet is wearing, which makes it less likely that it's a cap in the image of Nabal's death from the Maciejowski bible, since it looks just the same, except that we can't see the top of her head. Detail from fol 6 recto This is a gorgeous manuscript, which can be seen in its entirety at the web site of the national Library of Scotland. Lots of inspiration for illumination there. Another be-netted, fillet wearing...snake. From MS K26 at St.John's College, Cambridge. And a Norwegian early 14th century example, showing decorated hairnet, chin strap and fillet. So, hairnets are definitely an option, for married as well as for unmarried women - there are also quite a few of them preserved. This one is from the church of St. Truiden in Belgium, dated to the 13th century (link to museum site): And the same goes for this one, from the cathedral of St. Paul (link to museum site). As you see, they are first knotted and then embroidered. I'm ending this post with an image from the Rheims Missal 1285-1297, showing maybe a "Birgitta cap" with a fillet with wavy or dagged edge and a gebende. And wavy hair at the temples.

So, you have probably noticed that the one style/time period that I shy away from is the 14th century, say after 1330. It has not always been so - I did a lot of fitted gothic dresses in the late 1990s. Then it was a fairly unusual style in Sweden. However, soon it became fashionable, to the extent that many people today equate "medieval" and "the period ca 1360-1410". And I've never been good at following fashions within the re-enactment community - when something becomes that fashionable I jsut want to make something else. It also rubs me the wrong way that the reason that many people like the late 14th century fashions is because it conforms to what is considered a sexually attractive body today. I want my historical fashion to be beautiful on its own terms, and a bit odd, if that's what it is :) Of course it may also be that I'm now a bit too fat to pull off that style, but I didn't wear it 25 kilos ago either, so I don't think its that. After all, I make 12th century which is just as tight. Anyway, just because I don't wear it doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the art of the period, and the gowns worn in it. So, here are some of my favourite patterned gothic fitted dresses and tunics: Catalonia, second half of the 14th century From Bellatory Tapestry from Padua ca 1400. From the very nice blog "A Commonplace Book" From an Italian manuscript of the Quest for the Holy Grail and Tristan of Lyonesse, 1380-85. taken from Manuscript Miniatures. "Roman d'Alexandre", 1338-1344. One of the loveliest manuscripts there are. It's at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Here. More checks, this time italian, mid-14th century. Guillaume de Digulleville, "Le Pèlerinage de la Vie humaine". At Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris. These two are from La Quête du Saint Graal et la Mort d'Arthus, de Gautier Map. 1380-90s. From BNF, here. Martyrdom of Saint Agnes. "Missale ad usum fratrum minorum", c.1385-1390, Latin 757, f. 298r, Bibliothèque nationale de France. The resurrection, 1361-62, Museum of Zaragoza, Spain. Image taken from this blog. St. Catherine of Alexandria. Italian 1360s. From wikimedia The Smithfield Decretals ca 1330s-40s. Can be found digitised on the British Library's web site. Italian Manuscript of "Guiron le Courtois". 1380s. All three images from Manuscript Miniatures. c.1385 St. Stephen Altarpiece Church of Santa Maria de Gualter (Noguera) Musuem of Catalan Art, Barcelona From this site. St. Urusla and her virgin companions. Italian manuscript 1380s-90s I got it from Mistress Mathildes site "By my measure" The death and coronation of St. Clare. German 1360-70. Link to a photo by Lady Petronilla on Flickr.

Everybody knows (and loves, or ought to love) the high waisted gowns of the late Quattrocento, however a waist placed even higher than most of the gowns from this period (except for some Venetian ones) was fashionable in Italy in the late 13th century and the first half of the 14th century. Mostly this effect was reached by tying a ribbon under the bust, but, there are some paintings that actually suggest that here were gowns with very short bodices and a gathered skirt.I have resisted this interpretation ever since I first saw these gowns, because it just doesn't fit in the general development of clothing in this period. But, as I will show in the end of this post, there are some paintings that I have a hard time explaining in any other way. But, most of the high-waisted styles, are simply loose tunics tied under the bust: Unknown master, 1270s Simone Martini, Siena 1328: Giotto, Padua Scrovegni chapel Padua 1303-1305 Woman in white to the right The red gown appears to be tied with a string under the bust In this one we see both a belt, to the left, and a more ambigious gown, which may well have a seam under the bust, to the right. Here you can see the belt clearly: Lippo di Benivieni, Madonna with child 1310-1320 Taddeo Gaddi, pregnant Madonna, 1340s-50s? Ambrogio Lorenzetti c. 1335 Some of these appear to be either inspired by Roman styles, or, since this is before or early in the Renaissance, it may actually be a continuous tradition rather than copying of ancient statues. This woman, painted by Pietro Lorenzetti in the 1350s with both a tie under the bust and at the waist look very much like Roman statues. As does the woman to the right in this late 1320s painting by Taddeo Gaddi: Same fresco, look at the woman in lilac. These gowns are cool also because they show a sewn fold on the gown, a detail that is mostly known from the 15th century. More from the same fresco, look at the small women at the bottom right: A good view of a belt on an image of St. Catherine painted by Pietro Lorenzetti 1342. And another: A toddler Mary with a gown tied with a narrow belt. 1330s Often we don't see the ties of the belt, but they could be both in front as on St. Catherine and the attendant with towels above, and hanging down at the side, like on this painting by Pietro da Rimini where the woman to the left has a blue gown with a red belt with long end hanging down the side. Then there are some that I can't say if it's a belt or a seam. You can't see the belt in these from the late 13th or early 14th century Bologna, but from the shape of the bust I guess that it's a narrow belt or string tied just under the bust: These gowns are more ambigious and it could be both a narrow tie or a seam. More Bologna, this time St. Lucy in a painting by the so-called pseudo Jacopino, from 1329. Pietro Lorenzetti, 1329. This is probably a high belt. St. Agnes and St. Catherine in this painting, also by Pieto Lorenzetti, may wear gowns either with narrow gold coloured belts, or with gold trim at a high waist seam. This one, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, also Siena 1338-1339, does, however look more like it has a high waist seam, since the part under the horizontal line under the bust appears to be gathered. However, this could be the result of a tunic that fits snugly over the bust and widens a lot below the bust. The same goes for these, from Castel San Pietro, Mendrisio (now in Switzerland) painted before 1345. And then there's this one, by Giotto, from Padua, which mostly looks like it has a drawstring inside the gown (which is highly unlikely): But then there are a few, which do look like there's a waist seam just under, or even on the bust (like when you buy tops intended for women without boobs and the underbust seam ends up right across your bust). Leaf from a Cocharelli Treatise on the Vices, Accidia and Her Court, c. 1330 Buonamico Buffalmacco 1336-1341. Look at the split surcoat of the woman on the right: no visible belt, but clear gathers of the "skirt". Detail: And then, what finally convinced me, those that I couldn't explain away: These frescoes from the turn of the century 1300, in San Zeno, Verona. The final proof: In this image you actually see both seam and belt, since they don't align. So, tentatively there appears to have been a variety of gown worn in northern and central Italy which had a high waist seam. As with the belted variety of this high-waisted look, which was more common, this style was more popular in the beginning of the 14th century and disappears, with a few Madonnas and saints as exceptions, in the second half of the century. Thus there is no clear connection between these fashions and the high waisted styles of the late 15th century. The discussion in this blog post suffers from the fact that it is based only on visual soruces, since I don't have access either to written sources, such as wills and dowry records from this period. AFAIK there are also no studies of dress history specifically about this period and region; unlike the fashions of the 15th and 16th centuries. I am very much looking forward to Elisa Tosi Brandis upcoming book on tailoring in medieval Italy. But for now I think I am going to make an Italian gown with a high waist seam :)

When the charter of liberties we now know as Magna Carta was drawn up at Runnymede in 1215, it tapped into a long tradition of English kings making promises to uphold good laws and repudiate past oppressions. One of the most significant early written examples of such promises can be...

While I have written about the written sources for matching sets of cloting (see previous post) I haven't relly shown any period art showing them. Marching tunic/cotte/kirtle and surcoat are easy to find, especially in Italian 13th and early 14th century sources, but with a matching cloak too is a little more complicated. One reason for this is that it became less common to depict people wearing cloaks as teh 14th century progressed. While written sources show that they were still in use, in art they more and more became shown as ceremonial garments.In other cases you just don't see if the woman is wearing both a cotte and a surcoat. In some of these you have to really look closely to see the cloak, since it appears to fastened at the edge of the shoulders. This is not a reasearch post, just a few pictures that I have. When the whole set is finished there will be proper documentation. Giotto di Bondone: Scrovegni Chapel 1304-1306 Pietro Lorenzetto: St. Catherine and St. Agatha c 1315. Only St. Catherine has the full combination, but St. Agatha has some rather impressive buttons. Simone Martini: St. Elisabeth and St. Margaret 1318 Simone Martini: Maestà 1315-16 St. Ursula's companions in the church of San Orsola, Vigo de Cadore A couple of Virtues, by Taddeo Gaddi 1328-30 And a Madonna, by Taddeo Gaddi, from 1334. Here the Madonna has pulled her cloak over her head, something that might have been done in real life, especially when it rained, but above all was a convention in depictions of the Madonna. Bernardo Daddi: St. Margaret and St. Agnes ca 1337-39 Bernardo Daddi: St Catherine. Bernardo Daddi: St Catherine 1345-50 Ambrogio Lorenzetti: Maestà 1335-38. Note the fichets (pocket slits) on the surcoat. Maso di Banco. Coronation of the Virgin 1335-40 Antother Coronation of the Virgin by Maso di Banco Italian Painter c. 1365 Spinello Aretino: St Catherine, frescoes in the Bagno a Ripoli, second half of the 14th century

Presentation of royal identity in medieval books is rarely as straightforward as it may appear. One of the aims of our exhibition Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination is to explore the ways royal identity was both articulated and shaped by the medieval manuscripts that propagated royal genealogies, customs and...

In this post, part 2, I want to talk about another distinguishing feature that makes early 15th century women's fashion distinguishable. Actually, it's the lack of a feature we're going to be talking about.

We may not have known what comets were until the late sixteenth century, but humans have been recording their impressions of these orbiting ice balls for thousands of years. Some of the most beautiful art ever made reveals how long comets have been inspiring our imaginations.

While her name is a mouthful, and quite a convoluted one at that, Æthelflæd of Mercia's role in early medieval England is rather straightforward. More importantly, the part she played in the conquest of the Danelaw (the Viking dominated region of England) is imperative to the historical tale of Britain.

Modern astrology as we know it – in the form of a yearly, monthly or daily horoscope – is based on a celestial coordinate system known as the “zodiac”, a Greek word that means the circle of life. And, although astrology has been dated to the third millennium BC, it has been argued that it began as soon as humans made a conscious attempt to measure, record and predict seasonal changes.

end of the 13th century France Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, U 964 - Biblia Porta fol.178r http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/bcul/U0964

In 1230, Ralph Mortimer of Wigmore took a certain Gwladus Ddu as his wife. Ralph was a Marcher Lord, always intent on expanding his domains into Wales. His new wife was as Welsh as they came, daughter of Prince Llewellyn the Great. While Gwladus’ paternity has never been up for discussion – she is Gwladus […]